


Despanation

by Shaladaze



Category: Assassination Classroom
Genre: Angst, Don't Like Don't Read, Graphic depictions of violence - Freeform, Kidnapping, Occasional Light Chapters, Physical Torture, Too lazy to tag everyone, Unhealthy Coping Mechanisms, Violence is minor in the beginning
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-08
Updated: 2019-11-11
Packaged: 2019-11-14 02:19:08
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 15
Words: 20,238
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18043598
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shaladaze/pseuds/Shaladaze
Summary: A temporary truce is formed between the principal and class E when his son is kidnapped by a psychopath. The only problem is the black silhouette never made any demands.





	1. Truce

**Author's Note:**

> Another fic when you haven’t even finished the others?!
> 
> Hush. Enjoy.

Class had been relatively peaceful today. No dramatic assassination attempts, nothing major to study for just yet. Just a normal old school day.

Well, as normal as it gets with the E class. Sitting around silently reading a passage the teacher had asked them to study for a minute in their own. A blue haired male notices movement out of the corner of his eye. Glancing out the window he watches a figure approach at a swift pace. Thinking it might be someone trying to kill their teacher he watches them more closely. They were tall but he couldn’t make out who it was just yet.

As they slowly came into view he could finally make out the one detail he needed to identify who it was. With orange hair like that it could be none other than Asano Gakuho, their principal.

Face souring he contemplates saying something but with the principal making his way so swiftly to the building he was certain it was bad news. Looks like they wouldn’t be having a normal day after all.

He looks back down at his paper, now thoroughly thrown off, he can’t focus. Dropping his pencil on the desk, he leans back to look at the ceiling. They probably had thirty to twenty seconds before that taller man made it here.

Counting down in his head he waits to see if he is right.

5  
4  
3  
2

He walks in, the door opening quietly and while some of the students don’t notice at first, the moment the clicking of feet is heard all eyes are up.

The octopus looks over, “Ah, Principal! How can I help you today? Are you here for an assassination attempt?” Green stripes streak over his face.

The man looks grimly at him before speaking, “I would actually like to request a moment of your time in the teachers lounge.”

Everyone in class watches as a sweat breaks out on their teachers face, an expected reaction since he was often reprimanded in front of everyone not in private. Still both of them leave after Koro-sensei instructs them to continue while he is gone.

The class ignores the directions though and starts to talk.

“Do you think he’s in trouble?”, “Nah, he’s probably trying to get under his skin.”, “Totally an assassination attempt.”, “Maybe he’s being fired?”

Nagisa says nothing, only nodding or shaking his head at the respectable times. It was too early to say.

Karma stands and sneaks out the door, a few notice and move to follow him while others brush it off. Nagisa decides to follow him.

“Karma, what are you doing?” He leans out into the hall.

The redhead turns around, “I’m following them. Don’t wanna miss whatever happens right?”

Nagisa shrugs but follows him, Itona and Sugino closely behind.

They reach the room quietly, putting their training into practice. The door was closed so they can only listen in.

Gakuho’s voice reaches them, “I have only recently gotten to watch it.”

There’s some shuffling and what sounds like machine work, the room remains silent and they wait for something to happen. Bitch-sensei gasps softly but otherwise they remain silent. Another moment passes and there’s a loud cracking sound, it scares them a little since the noise is unexpected but luckily they stay quiet. The room goes quiet again.

Finally the silence is broken by the whirring coming to a stop with a click, “That’s all I received. There was no request for ransom of any kind.”

There’s silence once more before Mr. Karasuma speaks, “Why are you showing us this?”

There is silent shifting before, “You saw the video, do you really think I had any other options?”

Koro-sensei’s voice comes much louder than the others, “Your out of options, so you’re asking us for help.”

A pause, “I am presenting a sort a truce. I want to have my son returned to me safely and whoever has him has so far presented no evidence to returning him at all. I cannot expect you to accept my request based on our relationship alone, so I am proposing it as a job. I would pay you handsomely should you accept.”

There is a moment's pause before their teacher speaks again, “I won’t.”

The silence after the rings loud and tense, it’s a pause that has them holding their breath.

“I see. Thank you for your time then.”

There’s an odd slithering sound and then the door is slid open, causing Sugino to flinch back, he steps on Itona who in turn falls forward, hitting the Bluenette who falls and crushes Karma under all three of their collective weights.

“You see, since I’m no longer in the business and am currently working as a teacher I can’t possibly be expected to abandon my duties to my students, but why don’t we ask said students for their help?” He looks down at them with a wide smile.

Karma makes a grunt about them being heavy and they all clamor off of him, acting sheepishly after getting caught.

Their principal gives him a blank look, “You can’t possibly be telling me to ask a bunch of children to go after a phycopath.”

Their teacher nods with the green stripes returning, “Nyufu fufu. They’ve dealt with a few of those before with similar circumstances. This is nothing new up their alley.”

Karma nods to the TV, “You were watching something right? Show us.”

The man looks at them for a long moment before pressing rewind on the device, looking closer, Nagisa notices something about it, “Is that a VCR?”

Sugino gives his a questioning look, “A what?”

Karma points to said object, “That my friend, is a relic. Aside from the point. I meant you should show the whole class.”

The principal once again gives them a long look before sighing, “Since I have limited options we might as well.” He then looks to Koro-sensei, “Would you assist me in moving this to the classroom?”

A burst of wind interrupted their principal long before he was done, while the teenagers were still put off by the man’s behavior they couldn’t help but feel like something was wrong.

“There you go! I even rewound the tape for you!” The octopus smiled.

The man nods before gesturing for the kids to lead. They walk in front of the group back to class and into their seats.

The teachers stand grim while the principal speaks, “I would like to inform you now. What I’m about to show you is highly graphic, and may cause discomfort. It has nothing to do with killing your teacher. If violent acts have a possibility of making you uncomfortable, I would suggest you leave the room at once.”

No one moves but a sliver of doubt was planted with those words, what could he possibly be showing them?

The man nods, “You were warned.” He turns to the VCR and presses the play button before speaking again, “I received this in the mail this morning, after not being able to find my son Asano in the house. I only just got to watching it.”

The screen starts black, nothing visible for a few moments and everyone is on edge. Words appear on the screen, ‘BY NOW YOU MUST KNOW.’

They sit there for a moment before sliding off and are replaced. It looked like it was hand written on giant cards.

‘YOUR SON IS GONE.’

The black background seemed to intensify the white of the letters, ‘THIS IS TO LET YOU KNOW.’

They slide off again at a slowly agonizing pace, ‘THAT HE IS NOT SAFE WITH ME.’

The words disappear and a long moment passes before a light is flicked on and they can see a figure in the middle. The class gasps at what they see. Asano Gakushu sits in a chair tied up and blindfolded, with duct tape keeping him quiet. He doesn’t look hurt but the rope looks tight around the part of his arms they could see. The words come back, this time, clearly being held up by a black silhouette.

‘IF YOU CONTACT ANYONE.’ The figure moves slowly to show the next card, ‘I WILL KILL HIM.’ The figure drops the cards before picking up some more.

‘WHY? YOU MIGHT ASK?’ The cards start to move a little quicker now, ‘WHAT DO I WANT?’ This one is flipped over, ‘HOW CAN YOU GET HIM BACK?!’

The figure pauses before lifting a larger card, ‘I WANT TO WATCH YOU SUFFER. EVERYTHING THAT HAPPENS TO THIS BOY IS GOING TO BE YOUR FAULT.’

The words on this card are red, ‘I WON'T GIVE HIM BACK UNTIL I THINK YOU HAVE FINALLY FELT ALL THE PAIN THAT I SUFFERED THROUGH BY YOUR HANDS.’

The card is dropped and the figure slowly walks back to Asano reaching just off camera to grab something before lifting in in the light.

Nagisa’s eyes widen in horrific understanding, he looks back at his classmates and he can see his look mirrored on a few faces, but they don't know what’s about to come. His eyes snap back to the video.

The figure walks slowly menacingly toward the young boy, it’s agonizing to watch. The figure raises the bat high over their head. They can tell that Asano is awake by the way his feet twitch, or his head tilts like he could hear movement. He has no idea what’s coming.

The figure swings the bat so quickly it blurs on the screen and the resounding CRACK! That goes through the air makes most of the class flinch while a few of them gasp sharply in shock. The screen cuts black with no warning or other sound and it’s a moment before another card is shown. This one on a black background once again.

‘LET’S SEE HOW LONG HE LASTS.’


	2. Brainstorm

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one took a long time to write. Do you know how much math and pretending I knew how long this stuff takes I had to do?

The principal presses stop on the device and looks to the class with a grim look, “I have to apologize, I should have insisted more apon having those of you who would be most affected leave. I was under the impression that with your assassination training it would not have affected you so strongly. Truly, I feel awful.” The man bows to the class and they aren’t as shocked as they probably should be at the action.

They had just witnessed something they would never be able to unsee, this could make or break them. Nagisa looks back on his classmates and sees a few of the girls are crying, covering their face or just so shocked they don’t notice the tears. A few of the boys look like they might throw up and he can’t really blame them. Even Karma looked upset by what he had seen.

He looks back as Mr. Asano starts talking, “I came with a request to your teachers. Since they refused I was given the advice to ask you all instead.” He pauses as they try to gather themselves, “I would like to hire you, as assassins in training, to help me find my son. I understand that if you do not wish to do so that is fine. I realize that with our current dynamic and relationship the chances of you wanting to help me in this are slim to nonexistent. That is why I offer the payment.”

He opens his mouth to speak more but is cut off abruptly by Taraseka standing and hitting his desk, “Oh, cut the crap will ya!”

Everyone looks at him and he swings his arm out to the class, “I don’t know about the rest of yous! But like hell I’m going to just stand around and let some nutcase get away with kidnapping someone from our school!”

Kayano stands as well, her eyes red rimmed from holding back her feelings, “Yeah! No way in hell someone like that should be aloud to parade around!”

Soon, an all out uproar has started in the classroom, kids shouting over each other and fighting to be heard. It’s almost too much at this point when a gunshot has them all flinching and looking to the back of the classroom.

Karma sits with his feet on his desk, BB gun held high in the air. He speaks slowly, “That’s some nice enthusiasm you have there gang but there’s only one problem.” Some turn fully at that and he continues, “This is all the information we have at the moment. So even if we do accept this as a paid job or not, we have no idea where to start.”

A few of them immediately look upset or put out by this, he was right. They didn’t know much of anything right now. Looking to the teachers Nagisa raises his hand,

“Sir? What other information can you provide us with? Any at all can help.”

A few of the other teens nod, they knew how well he had been taking notes on their own target. Everything counted.

The tall man fixes his tie before speaking, “Just to be clear, am I correct in my understanding that you will assist me?”

Before anyone can say anything Karma groans from his seat, “Yes. We as a class have agreed to help you, if that pep-rally really went over your head I’m going to assume that white flag was for real.”

The man gives an amused smile, “You heard that then. Well, I give you my applause. By helping me I’m extending a peace treaty. All previous confrontations and differences will be placed on a table to be looked at later, when the job is done. No matter how long it takes. With that said, I want to make it clear I will be paying you for your work, regardless of your success.”

The class nod, it was a grim reminder but it was completely possible that they can’t save the young Asano in time, after all there were no demands and they made it clear they weren’t going to give him back willingly.

The principal stands up straighter, folding his hands behind his back, “So far, I have had to use the cover story of him being off on an educational trip, because he would never miss school for anything else. This VHS was left inside my mailbox, unwrapped next to the rest of my mail. I haven’t told the cops yet because in order to report an official missing minor they must be missing for at least 3 hours. In that time I got to the school and watched the video in my office to where you are now caught up on knowledge.”

Ritsu’s voice speaks from the back of the class, “What approximate time did you find out your son was missing?”

The man pulls out his phone then and looks at it, “I walked into his room to find it empty but untouched at around 6:40 AM, that was ten minutes after he usually comes down stairs for breakfast.”

She pauses before asking her next question, “When was the last time you saw him?”

“Last night at 8:50 PM. He is usually in bed by 9:30 PM, but I didn’t check in on him all night.”

Ritsu nods, “That’s a total of 9 hours and 10 minutes where we have no idea what happened. Meaning from 6:40 AM to now he has been missing for 3 hours, 2 minutes and 5 seconds.”

The class kids at her information before Kanzaki tentatively raises her hand. When the principal gestures at her she asks very quietly, “Is it possible for a few of the students to go and investigate your son's room? There might be something out of place we can find.”

The man nods his understanding, “I can see where that might help in normal circumstances, but in this case, not even myself is familiar with his room. I don’t personally see it fit to rummage through his things so I don’t enter is too often. When I looked through it this morning I didn’t find anything amiss.”

She folds her hands in her lap with an understanding nod, “You have a point.”

Takabayashi presses his glasses up his face before asking, “Do you have cameras on your property that might have caught the act?”

The principal nods again, “I do have cameras stationed around my home. This morning on the other hand I found every single one of them with cut wires. Footage reveals that at around 10 PM the power went out for about three minutes before coming back online, to which they show a no signal for the rest of the night.”

Ritsu takes in this information before speaking, “There was no reported power outage in this area last night. What area do you live in?”

He looks back at the large screen, “I live in the upper West area.”

She nods before checking something again, “No, still no power outage report. I’m going to see if I can find any footage from the neighboring houses.”

Everyone watches her as she searches before pulling up a few different screens, “These are the only ones I could find that were close to what we need. This is the correct house right?”

The man nods, “I’m impressed. Though I should expect nothing less from a super-computer.”

She nods in thanks before disappearing off screen, “This is footage from 9 PM.” The screen shows some awkward camera angles of a single yard, all in high definition, they would expect nothing less since the area looks expensive. “I’m going to fast forward it by 5 until the cameras detect movement.” The video speeds up, the room watching intently as trees shift ever so slightly from the wind. Nothing happens for a full hour, then Hayami points at the screen,

“Stop! There’s movement in the corner!”

The video stops and shifts backward a few seconds and they all watch intently, for those farther away it’s impossible to see but Hara points to the bottom left video feed, “Hey, zoom in on this one Ritsu.” The AI does as told and replays the last few seconds. You have to really squint but the shadows shift slightly in a way that isn’t similar to the trees.

Koro-sensei widens his smile, “Good work, Hayami! Very good eye. This might be our target.”

Everyone watches as the shadow moves over the fence/wall, “The time on this is 10:00:47 PM.”

A small red dot appears on the screen, her signal for marking where the man is and zooms back out to show the rest of the footage again, they repeat the process from before, Hayami pointing out if she sees something and Hara being the one to point it out on screen. By the five minute mark they only had two dots.

Karahashi’s voice is almost inaudible when she whispers, “He moves so fast.”

A few agree before silence falls over them again, waiting for something to happen

At minute fifteen and still no movement Ritsu starts speaking, “According to statistics, a kidnapping can take anywhere from 20 seconds to 5 minutes for a road kidnapping. Breaking and entering while kidnapping can take anywhere from 24 minutes to 50.”

They nod and wait, Nagisa really hoped that whatever happened had been caught on camera, because of it didn’t they still only had so much to go on. The screen speeds up again so they aren’t watching it in real time. They wait with baited breath so far they knew basically nothing. And their two dots only marked the time for entrance, and once around a corner but they don’t know what he was doing. They just needed to catch how long the person took.

At around the 10:45 mark they see movement by the same fence/wall as before, this time the figure has something over their shoulder and they all come to the same conclusion.

“Asano Gakushu was officially kidnapped at 10:46:21 PM last night. That puts him missing for 11 hours, 15 minutes, and 58 seconds as of right now.” Ritsu reappears on the screen with a sad look, “That’s a lot of time where we don’t know anything.”

Nagisa tilts his head to make eye contact with Ritsu, “Can you follow the figure on surrounding camera footage in the direction he was leaving? We might find how he got away.”

She nods and starts searching, “Hayami, Hara, would you assist me while the rest of the class talks?”

The two girls nod and Hayami moves closer to them while everyone else turns to each other.

Kataoka stands and walks to the front of the room, “So what do we know?” She picks up a piece of chalk and lifts it to the board.

Isogai follows suit shortly after, “We know how long he’s been missing.”

She writes down, - Missing H11, M16

Nakamura lifts a finger to her head, “Well, obviously whatever the guy did, Asano was out cold. That guy would never go down without a fight.”

-Asano unconscious, is written on the board.

Isogai looks at the principal who watches silently from the teachers desk, “He was taken from your home. Presumably from his bedroom but was there any sign of a struggle or point of entry?”

The man shakes his head, “Even with how thoroughly I looked, his bed was made like he had gotten up, his window was closed and the door was shut.”

Fuwa’s voice comes as a surprise, “In the manga I read, people generally lock their windows at night. Do you know in it was locked?”

The man takes a moment to think, “I believe it was unlocked when I checked his room. I didn’t actually investigate it.”

-Taken from home  
-Possible entry through window

“Alright, we also know the power was cut to your house, how that happened in the other hand is still unknown. You also said that the cameras were damaged in the 3 minutes it was out.”

Isogai receives a nod.

-Power out 3 minutes  
-Security system cut

Takabayashi speaks next, “The kidnapper was on grounds for 46 minutes give or take a few seconds.”

-46M process

Hayami speaks up at this time to the rest of the class, “It looks like the target climbed multiple fences and crossed a few roads before disappearing into the forest just south of that area toward the city. We lose track of him after that.”

-Escaped on foot into south forest

Hara nods before speaking, “We tried to look for an exit point but since we don’t know how long he was there it would take longer, and if he’s never on camera it’s wasted time.”

Isogai nods back to her, “Alright, what else could we search for with video feed.”

Kayano perks up, “We could check to see who leaves the mail?”

Isogai smiles brightly, “Good idea! Ritsu?”

“On it!” Her screens change rapidly, shifting through video footage to see if its in line of sight, “I have to report that there’s no clear view of his mailbox. We can see some minor sidewalks but the angles are bad in all of them. With the better lighting I should be able to sift through the videos on my own but other than that I can’t promise anything.”

Isogai nods, “That’s fine. Do what you can.” At this he looks to the rest of the class, “From the tape we watched, there wasn’t much to go on. We know their in a place where the kidnapper has access to electricity and an old video recorder but that’s about it. And since we don’t know if he owned it before all of this or found it somewhere, so we can’t track it by the device.”

Maehara groans and leans back in his seat, “So far the only information we have is enough to confirm that he’s gone and that’s about it. Short of trying to search the whole city I don’t think we can find him off of any of this stuff. And even if we did look everywhere, if the guy was watching us he would know immediately that he had been snitched on and kill his hostage anyway.”

Nagisa sweat drops, he was pretty sure that everyone was thinking it but really? Out of the corner of his eye he watches Nakamura stand with her book in hand and lean forward. She lifts the book and whacks Maehara upside the head with it before sitting back down.

He whips his head around to face her with a glare, “Ow! Hey, what was that for?!”

She points her book at him, “Your being a buzzkill! Usually it’s Karma who points out stuff like that not you! So stop being such a downer!”

He frowns at her, rubbing his head, “I was just trying to say that at this point we’re in the same boat a cop would be. Jeez.”

Isogai nods, “You’re not wrong. But we have a few advantages that a cop doesn’t.”

At the questioning glances he gets, he puts his hands on his hips, “We have assassination training! Now, if you were to kidnap someone where would you most likely go?”

A few teenagers look uncomfortable with the question and the scoff at the back of the room has no one surprised.

“Really guys? It’s not a hard question. You take them somewhere no one would suspect. That rules out old factory’s, and abandoned houses. But if there’s too much foot traffic, getting in and out would be difficult, so it wouldn’t be in a high populated area. That being said, you have to avoid suspicion so they wouldn’t be in some kind of shack in the forest. I personally would take someone to my own basement, most people know I’m a shady person anyway, so my activity wouldn’t change.”

Itona looks from Karma to the rest of the class, “When I was with that man, I was considered a missing person. He often had me follow him to places that he owned, business buildings like labs or stores that were actually cover ups for what they actually did. He had many of them around town and would take me to a different one all the time.”

Isogai nods, “Alright, so assuming that the person lives in the area we need to take that into account.”

Okuda nervously raises her hand, “W-well, what if they aren’t in the area? What if they come from a different town?”

Sugino is quick to catch on, “Right, when we went on that trip to Kyoto Kayano and Kanzaki were kidnapped we had to use the ‘School Trip Guide Book’ to find them.”

Nagisa reaches into his bag and pulls the exact book, “Yeah, I remember that.”

Kayano makes some sort of choking noise, “You carry that around?!”

He ignores her and flips through the pages, “I actually have this page memorized.” He gets to it quickly, “Page one thousand forty three, what to do when a group member has been abducted. If there are no leads on the perpetrators think back to any cloak realisms, and quirks that might indicate that the perpetrators are local.” He looks up from the book, “Since we can't do that based on looks or how they sound. I was thinking we could look at their hand writing and style to see if it gave us any clues.”

Kataoka points the chalk at him, “That’s a good idea, from what I could tell, it looked like they wrote with their non-dominant hand.” She switches the chalk to her opposite hand and turns to the board. “It’s hardly legible but enough so that we can read it, meaning they have some practice.” She writes Security systems out next to the first one, the kanji sloppy but still readable, “I only noticed because it reminded me of my own handwriting when I was practicing.”

Isogai nods, “We’ll have to watch the footage again to look at all of those cards he had to see if any of the words are a certain style.”

Fuwa waves her hand in a dismissive way, “No need. They were using the early modern Japanese writing instead of modern Japanese, there’s a slight difference in style. Enough so that most consider early to be the current modern.”

Kayano turns around to look at the girl behind her, “How do you know that?”

The brown haired girl smirks, “I read a lot of old manga.”

Isogai looks to the board where Kataoka is making a new list drawing a line between them. ‘What we know’ with the list of things from the kidnapping and ‘Possible leads’ with their new list.

-Early Japanese  
-Non-dominant hand

He looks back to the class, “Ok, that tells us the kidnapper is trying to disguise as much as they can to make it harder to find him. Does anyone remember if he was wearing anything noticeable?”

The room is quiet for a moment before Okajima speaks up, “Honestly dude. I was too distracted by what he was doing to pay attention to the actual guy.”

A few others agree with him silently.

Their principal’s voice startled them all, “He was wearing a black suit that covered him from head to toe with black clothing over it to hide his figure. That way even in the light he wouldn’t have any noticeable features.”

Isogai nods, “That makes sense, if they're trying to hide they might as well hide everything.”

-Disguised appears on the ‘What we know’ side.

Ritsu chimes in suddenly, “This person must really know the area because I can only find his exit point from the forest and that’s it.”

The class turns to look at her screen and when she is sure they are all watching she plays the footage. It shows the edge of the forest and at first they don’t notice it, but after a moment they see the shadows shift like they had before. The figure is farting across the very edge of the feed, like they thought they were out of camera view but had just missed the mark.

“This is the only one I could find at exactly 12:15:09 AM.” Her face appears back on the screen.

Hara turns to the rest, “So they went into the city, but we don’t know if they stayed in the area or left.”

Isogai nods, “If they avoided people and traveled all night that could put them anywhere between this city and the next.”

A map suddenly appears on the screen, “With how quickly they traveled, if it was consistent the whole night and assuming that they stopped traveling after about 4 hours.” A large circle appears over the map, “They could be anywhere within a 12 mile radius of Mr. Asano’s home. Possibly farther if they continued to travel after a short rest.”

Hazama leans on her arm, “Well isn’t that depressing.”

Most of them could agree with that statement, because really, they had no idea what their plan was at the moment. But they definitely weren’t prepared for what came next.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let me know if I messed up anywhere. I did not look this one over. I made a minor change with one name Asuno->Asano. Thank you NAME!


	3. 12 hours

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I feel like this one is shorter than the other two but I’m not sure.

A vibrating noise sounds across the room, it’s not loud but all of them notice. The principal reaches into his pocket and pulls out his phone to glance at the screen.

Nagisa watches as the man closes his eyes, take a subtle deep breath and open them once more.

“Ritsu was it?”

Said AI perks up, “That’s me!”

“Can you track text messages?”

She nods, “Yup! I’ll need to connect to the device though.”

He lifts his phone, “What do you need me to do?”

She smiles widely, “Enter this number into your phone and send a message.” A number appears on the screen.

He does so quickly as his phone vibrates once more.

“Alright, I’m connected. Am I trying to track the number texting you?”

The man nods his head, “Please do, as for the rest of you, I have just received a message saying; ‘You will receive an update on the boy every 12 hours.’ with a photo attachment.”

Ritsu picks up after him, “I will show the image to the class, but I want you all to know that it’s not pretty.”

When no one looks away she nods before disappearing behind the dark image that appears. There isn’t much lighting, just like with the video from earlier, but they can still see the subject clearly. Centered in the photo is the strawberry blonde, looking like he did before though this time the cloth around his eyes is dirty with what they assume is blood near his right temple. Off to the side is a medical bag holder, with something attached to it and an ominous tube disappearing behind Asano’s back.

Hara, who is sitting closest, makes a gagging noise and looks away.

When she stays silent Sugaya leans over to get a closer look at the image. It takes him a moment but as soon as he sees whatever Hara saw he goes pale, if that’s even possible.

Nakamura finally snaps, “What?!”

The teen looks to the rest of the class, “The bag says Acetone.”

Nakamura shrinks back, “W-wait. Can’t that stuff kill you?”

“Acetone poisoning. It’s not deadly at first but it can be. You see drinking a shot of Acetone can cause a similar effect in the body as alcohol, it causes intoxication and all of the symptoms that come after that. The body can digest it but again, only in small amounts,” Koro-sensei’s voice speaks in that tone he uses when he’s trying to teach them something, but there’s something odd about it.

Okajima rubs his head, “So… he’s getting him drunk?”

Their teacher turns to him, “In simpler terms, I guess you could say that.”

Isogai scratches his head, “Why would they do that? And why not just use normal alcohol instead of Acetone?”

Karasuma speaks next, “Its effects on the body are a little different. If a doctor where to check for normal intoxication they wouldn’t find anything, they would have to do a very specific test to find out it was acetone poisoning. The side effects are the same, but the body’s reaction are different.”

Kataoka folds her arms, “So they get away with forced-intoxication?”

Karasuma nods, “Essentially yes.”

Ritsu appears on screen again, “I’ve tried tracking the number, but I believe it has been destroyed. I can’t find the main source for the signal anymore but I can tell you where it was coming from.”

Everyone looks to her eagerly but she gives them a grim look, “It says the signal is from somewhere in South Africa.”

The principal gives a huff, “They must be using a very strong encryption device if that’s the information you found.”

She nods, “It doesn’t seem to be its original coding. But since the device was either destroyed or disconnected, I can’t get more information on it. I tried to check and see if the device had any other information at all but all the systems I looked under say that it was put online about twenty minutes ago.”

Karma hisses, “Their smart then. Must have been a trash phone.”

Ritsu makes an agreement noise, “Judging by the quality of the photo and the data in the messages, it looks like it’s an older version of a touch screen phone, either a first or second generation.”

Nagisa mumbles under his breath, “That’s even older than my phone.”

Isogai heaves a sigh, “We can’t rule out the possibility that they aren’t in Japan anymore. Twelve hours is enough time to get out of Japan.”

There’s a loud high pitched groan from the front of the room, which draws everyone’s attention.

Bitch-sensei is grabbing at her hair in frustration or possibly anger, her features twisted up, “This is ridiculous. I’m leaving. Let me know if you need me,” waving her hand around she walks out of the room.

Yada gives the door a concerned look, “I wonder what that was about…”

“She’s most likely remembering the kidnapping that happened when you children went to look for her.”

Everyone looks to their yellow teacher as he keeps talking, “You should remember that she did in fact help with that.”

Yada nods her head and looks down, “She knows we don’t blame her though right? We forgave her immediately.”

Koro-sensei tilts his head, “That is true and I’m sure she is aware. But the memories might not be very present for her.”

The girl leans back to look at him with a small smile, “Maybe. I hope she’ll be ok.”

The sound of chalk on a board draws everyone’s attention.

-12 hour update

Isogai gives a sheepish smile, “Oh, yeah. I almost forgot. I’m glad you remembered to write it down Kataoka.”

She smiles back at him, “It’s not a problem. This does mean that we have a timeline we can follow. If we get an update on his condition every twelve hours, we’ll be able to monitor his condition, even just a little bit.”

“Wait, then it would be a good idea to keep the evidence in order that we get it right?” Terasaka asks.

Karma laughs next to him, “Haha! Wow, you said something smart for once, that’s a whole other level for you.”

An angry tuck mark appears on the taller of the two, “HEY! You keep your mouth shut! I don’t see you giving any great ideas!”

The red head is interrupted before he can start anything by Ritsu, “That’s a good idea. I can categorize everything we are given digitally.”

Koro-sensei wiggles his tentacles in glee as a red circle appears on his face, “Great plan students! I can get you a pox to keep the materials organized as well!”

The class smiles at his approval, it was nice being acknowledged when they did something right.

Isogai turns to Ritsu, “It’s not a great image but can you print out the picture we were sent for the hard copy categorizing?”

She smiles, “Coming right up!” A paper comes out of the front and Hara takes it before passing it to Fuwa who then passes it up till it reaches Isogai’s hand.

“Thank you.”

A gust of wind and a blink later, their teacher returns with a paper sized box. Isogai takes out the tape and places it in the box first and then the paper. He pauses before picking the paper back up.

“This has the time on it.”

Ritsu nods, “Yup! I included the time stamp in the corner.”

Nagisa gives the girl a smile, “That was a good idea Ritsu.”

She giggles a thank you while Isogai looks around himself, “We will need to put that on the first one too. Or as close as we can get.”

Koro-sensei holds up a roll of masking tape and a permanent marker. The lads president smiles and takes them, writing down the necessary numbers before putting everything back in the box again.

“There. Now we just have to come up with a plan.”

As the class starts thinking the principal stands from where he was leaning on the desk, “As much as I would love to say here and assist you, my presence is needed at the main campus to avoid suspicion. We will stay in contact.” Then he leaves the room just as quickly and as silently as he arrived.

Nakamura rolls her eyes, “Such a stick in the mud. Whatever. So got any plans?”

Everyone glances at each other awkwardly, some making eye contact but never saying anything.

Isogai heaves a heavy sigh, “This is going to be harder than we thought.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fact check me if you want, but I looked most of this stuff up.
> 
> As always let me know if there are any mistakes.


	4. Rules of play

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not dead

Nagisa stretches his arms back once they get outside, their last few classes were focused mostly around finding Asano and the class was getting restless. After a fight had almost broken out between a few of his classmates their teachers had sent them out for an early gym class to help burn off some of the steam.

Karma comes up on his right in his gym clothes and Nagisa can’t help but feel a little surprised, usually he skips gym.

“Think we’re doing anything fun?”

Nagisa puts his arms down and folds forward to touch his toes, “No idea, but I hope it’s more focused on exercise and not so much the thinking part, I’m tired of using my brain.”

The red head gives a half laugh and walks past him, “No joke. Maybe if Karasuma-sensei tries to make us use our heads we can just attack him.”

Kayano scoffs from behind the blunette, “Right, because that would go over well.”

Standing up straight the three join the rest of the class on the field, waiting for their instructions.

Karasuma stands at attention with his arms folded, “Alright, since a few of you don’t know how to keep from fighting each other, we’re going to do some team exercises today.” A few groans are heard but no one speaks, “Form at least four groups. You get to pick your teams.”

The class groups up immediately, falling into a sort of common pattern of groupings that was developed early in the year.

“Alright.” He then goes though the groups and pulls out students seemingly at random from all of the groups. Fuwa, Hayami, Karma, and Terasaka.

“These four have just been kidnapped.”

A few of the students look either uncomfortable or irritated but as usual Karma’s the only one to speak, “Really teach? After all that crap in the classroom you’re doing a kidnapping game?”

Their teacher gives him a long hard look, one that they don’t usually see, he stays silent before turning back to the class again, “You weren’t trained to deal with kidnappings, let alone hostages. We as teachers have dealt with it but you have not. You need to have some experience with this at least once to get an idea of what to do.”

A few nods go through them but they stay silent.

“Now, this is going to be a little like capture the flag. I’m going to hide them in various places around the forest and your goal is to find them and bring them back here to safety. The catch? Every other group is your enemy.”

“What?” Echoes from all of their mouths.

He raises his hand to hush them, “This must be a total stealth mission, getting caught means your team loses.”

The class stares at him shocked as he continues, “The only way to get out of making your whole group lose is to take out the other player.”

Nagisa raises his hand, “Hold on, I’m confused. So our goal is to find our group member, without getting caught.”

“Correct.”

Nakamura steps forward, “Wait, then what are the rules?”

Mr. Karasuma frowns, “I was getting to that. 1. If you are seen by someone not on your team and they get away, your team loses. On the other hand if you see another team, you have the option to either attack or run. If you see each other the options are the same. This rule will be enforced by Ritsu, so you will need to point your camera at the person to show you saw them. 2. Everything is allowed, all tricks you can think of are free to use so long as they don’t hurt other students. 3. If you find a target that isn’t your own, you can kidnap them yourself. If you bring them back here then the team they no longer to loses. You cannot help each other. 3. I am your number 1 enemy. I will know where all of your targets are and as such, I am the kidnapper. I will do everything within my power to make it so you can’t find these four and I do mean everything.”

A shiver goes down their spines, this was a rather tough thing to throw at them out of the blue.

Their teacher turns to the four behind him, “You four have the same set of rules but slightly different. You can do anything you want. If you can find a way to escape then do it, but keep in mind you have three teams willing to take you themselves. The chances of you running into your own team drop if you escape. Unlike everyone else, you won’t have a phone.”

Terasaka gives an irritated look, “No phones huh. Ugh. Why did you pick us?”

Mr. Karasuma folds his arms, “Your own target has skills of his own. He is capable of self defense and he was still taken. Think of it as a simulation.”

Fuwa mutters something under her breath about video games but not loud enough for anyone to understand.

Turning around once more their teacher pulls out his phone and speaks to the pink haired girl, “Would you monitor the game? I’ll given you details once everything is set up.”

She nods, “Yes sir! Let me know.”

“Alright, set a timer for ten minutes,” He looks up, “Once this timer is finished, you can start looking. Take this time to prepare.”

Then he turns around and leads the four students into the forest. This was definitely going to be a thinking game.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know this one is super short but I felt the actual game should get its own chapter.


	5. Game start

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was both shorter and longer than I wanted.

The class sits apart from each other in their groups. They had decided as a class that the fairest way to start the game would be to start in different directions that way they weren’t running into each other the moment it started. According to the map Ritsu had showed them, the area they had to look through spanned a large part of the mountain side behind the building. Mr. Karasuma must have cleared the rest of the day for this activity because there was no way they could complete this in a little over a half an hour.

Nagisa glances at his phone, they had about one minute and twenty seconds left before the game started. Everyone was prepared with their gear and weapons of choice, while the game plan had been laid out. It was going to be a hard game and there were still some unknown factors. Looking back at this group he goes over what all of them are supposed to do once they hit the forest.

Nagisa was the scouter, moving ahead of the group and making sure it’s safe before calling everyone to him. Maehara and Isogai are attack and defense, if a fight happens their ready. Kayano and Sugino are watchers as well as the shooters of their group. Nakamura has come up with lost of the idea and was playing tactician, trying to find the best places to go and making things out. Usually their grouping is fine and does wonders in combat, but Karma was missing. He’s usually the one coming up with the strategies and running it like a champ. While their group had plenty of leaders in it who could step up to the plate with ease, that was the biggest problem. The group had gotten into a routine of deferring to the redhead in many situations. Which, now that Nagisa thinks about it, might have been exactly the reason for him being taken from their group.

“Match starts in thirty seconds!” Chimes Ritsu.

Making eye contact with his team they ready at the edge of the forest. They had chosen a middle position between Terasica and Hayami’s group. Fuwa’s team was on the other side of Hayami’s. They had taken into account the risk of starting in the middle while the other three had argued about who could start at the edges. Since they were in the middle, the chances of the two outside teams converging on the inner teams increased, taking them out. It also made it so they had the whole side of the map to check without worrying too much about cross over, narrowing the searching the two inner teams would do. Now this would normally be a problem if they hadn't decided to start their search on the other side of the map. Their goal was to sprint out into the forest and get to the other side as fast as they can while avoiding the other teams. This way the amount of contact they should come into with the other teams is limited, and they could search the other half of the map unhindered. The only thing that would make this all a bad plan was their teacher.

“10 seconds!”

They all tense.

“9”  
“8”  
“7”  
“6”

Nakamura inches closer to him and whispers something in his ear.

“5”  
“4”

He hides his surprise but nods, it’s not a bad plan. Since he was supposed to be in front.

“3”  
“2”

He adjusts his angle a little.

“1, BEGIN!”

They take off, they had a lot of ground to cover and a time limit that wasn’t given to them. Nagisa positions himself near the edge of his own group, closer to Terasaka’s group than was planned, his team doesn’t notice the change.

As they run through the thick greenery, weapons in hand, Nagisa pulls out flash granada from his hip and pulls the pin. He hears a similar sound off to his left as well as a few confused sounds from his team. Reeling his arm back he throws the grenada as hard as he can to his right before turning away. A few seconds pass before shouts and screams are heard on both of their sides as the grenade seemingly explodes, blinding both of the teams.

Nakamura is laughing behind him, “Oh man! I’m so glad we were given those!”

His team collectively sweat drops as they run, they had forgotten that she was almost as bad as Karma with her pranks.

Nagisa huffs as they continue, with their distraction in the beginning they probably had a head start. Still they couldn’t slow down. The trees blur past, their extensive training and exercise practices to kill their teacher having given them all enhanced endurance.

In seemingly no time at all they hear Ritsu call out, “You are nearing the border. If you go too much farther you will be considered disqualified.”

They stop, catching their breath and drinking water.

“Whoo! That was a work out.” Kayano sits down as she breathes.

Sugino swallows his water, “No joke. Say like a minute then we start searching?”

They all agree, catching their bearings and looking around. Nagisa, taking his scouting roll seriously, looks at his map to see the blue line tracking where they have been. Turning in a random direction, he starts walking.

“I’m going to scout ahead.”

They let him go with Kayano mumbling about him never stopping. She wasn’t wrong.

Looking around he tries to think of his training. Tracking had been a large part of what they had learned but it was different from a monster to a person. Broken branches in one direction would look different if their teacher had torn through at Moc 20.

He perks up suddenly as he starts looking up in the trees, they had been running or a solid ten minutes. Plenty of time for things to change around them. Including if Karma had escaped.

They had come up with a way to leave messages without alerting others, as a regular team they got separated often and had to figure out a way to find each other again. This time he was looking for Karma’s signature mark, a triangle shaped rock impeded in a tree branch. It was something small that almost wouldn’t think too much about, maybe they see it and it doesn’t register in their brain. If someone is in pursuit, they wouldn’t bother with it. The class could climb all of the trees in this forest with a broken leg so it would be hard to leave.

He doesn’t see anything in the trees and even though he knew it was a possibility, he still had to squash the disappointment of not finding it. Maybe he would see it later.

Pulling out his phone he speaks quietly, “Ritsu. Will you let my team know it’s safe?”

The pink haired girl salutes him, “Done! Do you need anything else?”

He thinks for a moment before asking, “Are you aloud to tell us if another team is out?”

She shakes her head, “Nope. I’m only here to keep track of your route, keep you in contact with each other, and make any announcements from Mr. Karasuma. Oh! And if someone gets hurt but that’s always the case.”

He nods as the rest of his team catch up with him.

“Anything?” Maehara catches up first.

He shakes his head, “Not yet. Haven’t found any clues either. Let’s keep looking.”

The group agrees and he starts off again, scouting ahead, contacting them, looking up, checking his route and repeating the process all over again. So far they haven’t heard anything, the forest oddly quiet for how many students are supposedly in it right now.

They’ve been moving for roughly twenty minutes now with nothing to show for it, in total that’s a half hour worth of nothing.

“Geez! He didn’t hold back at all did he?” He hears Sugino whisper. They had decided to whisper only since the forest was so still.

Kayano grunts as she trips over something, “Ugh, yeah. Haven’t we looked here already?”

Nagisa looks at his map as Nakamura responds, “No, we haven’t. Just keep looking.”

They had covered a good amount of ground. He would actually say that this section was empty and move on. No sense in staying here. Dashing off from his group as was routine by now, he gets to a small cliff face and quickly realizes where he is. This was the same cliff that Karma had jumped off of. Getting a brilliant idea he looks around him for people or signs of a struggle before walking up to the wall. With practiced ease, he starts to climb it. Fast enough that he makes it look easy, but careful enough that he doesn’t slip.

Once he gets to the top he peaks over the edge, no one was up here as far as he could tell. Finishing his climb with one last pull, he stays in a low position and looks to the tree. A smile plasters itself onto his face when he sees a triangle shaped rock dug into the wood.

Doing a silent cheer he grabs his phone only to freeze. He could feel eyes on him but he didn’t know where they were from. He waits with bated breath, he could have just lost the game for his whole team but he wasn’t sure yet.

He closes his eyes and tries to focus on his surroundings. He almost felt the burning from the side of his head, where the closest part of the forest to him was. There were no other noises aside from his own breathing so that means that the person has likely noticed his change in behavior. They both knew the other was there.

Switching his grip from his phone to his knife as slowly as possible he waits until he has a solid grip on it before farting in the direction of the stare. Charging purely on instinct, he breaks through the bushes to hear a high pitched scream before a pair of footsteps are running away from him. Looking up sharply he watches Okuda darting through the trees.

Without thinking he runs after her. She’s not very fast and he catches up to her easily. Tackling her into the ground and poking her neck with the knife.

“You’re dead.” He tells her.

She huffs sadly, “Ugh, you got me.”

He stands up from where they had fallen and helps her up, “Sorry about that tackle. It was a lot harder than it should have been.”

She shakes her head, “No, it’s fine. I’m not hurt or anything. I guess this means my team lost huh?”

“Not quite.”

Nagisa pulls out his phone and gives Okuda a confused look, “What do you mean? The rules said that if we saw each other then one of the teams lose, or something like that. The rules confused me.”

She nods, “Yes, but I was given different instructions. Okuda, since your team doesn’t know you’re dead yet, you need to stay here as a ‘dead body’.”

“Wait, so we haven’t lost yet?” She asks uncertainty.

The pink haired girl nods, “Correct. While you are dead and can’t keep going the situation changes. Nagisa is the enemy right? So since normally you wouldn’t know how many people there were we are assuming there’s only one. This means that Nagisa thinks he has eliminated the threat by killing you. Right?”

Nagisa nods, “Yeah, we were told we could chase the other person.”

“That’s right but Mr. Karasuma didn’t explain ‘Death’ to you before the game right?”

He nods again, “Well. Since you killed her neither team loses. Okuda just can’t play anymore.”

The two teens nod in understanding, “That makes sense.”

Ritsu nods, “YUP! Now I just have one more thing to do.”

They give her a questioning glance and watch her for a moment. Suddenly the screen flashes white with flashing red text on it.

‘ALERT: KIDNAPPER HAS BEEN NOTIFIED OF YOUR LOCATION!’

Ritsu’s voice comes through again, “Warning: the kidnapper has been notified of your location and is enroute. Warning: the kidnapper has been notified of your location and is enroute.” Her message repeats again and Nagisa feels his pulse spike.

“What?! That’s a thing?!” He looks around panicked and Okuda momentarily looks freaked out too.

Ritsu’s voice comes through the other girls phone softly, “Don’t worry Okuda, your a dead body now. So he won’t be coming after you.”

Said girl relaxes significantly while Nagisa feels his instincts kick in, “Ok. I’m leaving. Bye!” Before dashing back the way he came.

Ritsu’s warning stops as he starts running back to the clearing, he had to warn the others or his whole team will be whipped out. He pauses at the cliff face, remembering only when he gets there that he had climbed up it at all. Throwing his arms up in exasperation, he looks around for a better plan. Finding none, he decides the stupid idea is the safest one and runs over to where the tree is. Climbing down the face of the cliff carefully, the fear of being found still strong he moves over until he is directly under the trees trunk and holds onto the cliff face for dear life. He didn’t have any better ideas and he’s banking on the fact that his teacher will be above him and not below.

He listens closely, calming his breathing as best he can while the adrenaline is still pumping through his veins. It stays quiet. Almost too quiet, but no matter how much time passes nothing seems to change.

“Ritsu?” He whispers.

She responds just as quiet, “Yes?”

He’s thankful she can hear him, “Tell the team this area’s not safe.”

She doesn’t respond this time, knowing he is still hiding. Slowly, he shifts sideways once more and peaks over the edge. The clearing is empty, not a soul in site. Taking that as a silent blessing or strong stroke of luck, he looks to where the rock is stuck in the wood. It stands, the side of it facing him, it’s two points pointing toward the forest behind him and far in front of him. He knew what that meant and was silently dreading having to climb back up until he noticed the angle. Since the tree is tilted the triangle should have been tilted, but instead it stands straight up. Mailing to himself he climbs back down the rock face, this part taking much more time than the first.

He touches land and stretches his arms above his head, the strain of that had really hurt. Pulling out his phone he speaks, “Let the team know it’s safe now and I know where Karma went.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let me know of any mistakes


	6. Tracking

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok so I don’t know what happened but I tried to update the chapter because I was informed by multilateral that I had made a mistake and now we’re here.

Nagisa looks in the trees while his group catches up to him. If Karma had climbed down the cliff face, then he should have left another rock in one of the-There! Moving toward the trunk of the tree he climbs it with practiced ease. 

He reaches the branch at the same time Isogai’s voice does, “Nagisa? What are you doing?”

He smiles down at them and points to the rock in front of him, “Karma’s been here. I’m figuring out which way he went.”

His team nods, they had all come up with a way to track where they had been but chose only a few people each to share that information with. Nagisa was the only one who knew how to track Karma and the rest had been respectful of that decision.

He stares at it for a minute before realizing which way Karma went, the rock was stuck facing toward the cliff in the east but tilted so it was pointing north. It was a good trick and he hadn’t had the explanation he would have gotten lost.

Climbing back down the tree he points north, “This way.”

Kayano makes a face, “But that way leads to the edge of the map we were given. We’re fairly close to it as it is.”

Nagisa nods, “True. We can’t leave the grounds but that doesn’t mean he didn’t go that way.”

The group collectively shrugs and hey begging their routine of scout and catch up. Nagisa finding only one other rock that pointed him in the same direction he had been going. After moving a few yards past the one he had just found Ritsu speaks up.

“You’re nearing the boundary. Going too much farther will result in you losing the game.”

Nagisa frowns, the rocks were pointing him north, no turns. That meant Karma had to have left the boundary or he read the last one wrong. Scratching his head he tries to think of what to do next.

“Well this is a dead end. We can’t find him like this.” Nakamura sighs.

Kayano throws a hand up, “Oh! Maybe we could try taking out the other teams?”

Maehara laughs nervously, “That’s a great idea. If we want to get caught!”

While they argue, Nagisa tunes them out. Why would Karma have gone out of the boundary? Doing that means they should have already lost. Folding his arms he hums a little while he thinks.

Isogai puts a hand on his shoulder, “What are you thinking Nagisa?”

Slowly the blunette looks at the taller student, “I can’t figure out why Karma would leave the grounds. He wouldn’t want to lose the game because of something like that.”

Isogai nods, “You’re right. From what I know about Karma, he hates being bested because of a few rules.”

Something hits Nagisa then, “Karma doesn’t have his phone.”

The group stops and looks at him confused. “Oh yeah, the kidnapped group had their phones taken away.”

Nagisa nods his head enthusiastically. “They wouldn’t know the boundary because Ritsu has been keeping track of us the whole time!”

Nakamura grins wide, “If that’s the case, then if we didn’t have our phones…”

Kayano jumps in with excitement lacing her voice, “Then we could leave too! That’s brilliant!”

Sugino smiles wide, “Leave it to Karma to test our skills.”

Isogai stands up straight and faces them, “We were told we could do anything and everything to win as long as no one got hurt. He never said we had to keep our phones with us.”

Maehara gives a long suffering sigh, “I got roped into the crazy group.”

They laugh at him while yelling out their phones.

Nakamura smiles down at Ritsu, “Hey. Keep track of our phones yeah? Don’t want to lose it in the forest.”

The girl with pink hair smiles, “I can’t report you if I don’t see you leaving the boundary.”

The blonde smiles impishly, “Good. See you later then Ritsu!”

They gather their phones inside a small pouch and put it up in a tree, keeping them hidden as well as they could without losing it completely.

Isogai stands at the front of the group, “Alright. Now that that’s done, let’s go!”

They nod enthusiastically, their determination renewed. Nagisa starts them at a run, no need for a scooter if they weren’t expecting anyone to be following them out of bounds.

The next few minutes are filled with Nagisa leading them steadily away from the boundary, following the trail Karma had left behind. So far it seemed he was going straight north without turning, like he knew he had passed the imaginary line a while back and didn’t care to change direction.

Finally they reach a stream, the trees were still thick but a small break in the trees above them let sunlight hit the surrounding ground. The group breathe hard as they wait for Nagisa to start them running again.

The blunette for his part is confused, because there are two rocks sitting on the round next to the river, their position being too weird to be natural.

He lifts his head suddenly, “Karma?!”

At his shout the group flinches but looks around to try and locate their missing teammate. After a few moments of silence Maehara lets out a shriek from behind, jumping toward the front of the group. Whipping around they see the suspect standing there with a devilish smile on his face.

“Haha! Geez no need to jump off like that.”

Nagisa smiles wide, “Karma!”

The redhead holds up his hand in greeting, “You found me.”

Nakamura nods, “All thanks to Nagisa here.”

Karma looks to the blunette, “Well I sure hope so. He’s the only one who would have found me.”

At that the smaller boy scratches his head in nervousness, “We almost didn’t come here because we’re past the game boundary.”

Amber eyes widen, “We are?”

Nagisa nods, “Yeah, we past it a while ago.”

Karma covers his mouth while saying, “Well that explains a lot.”

At their questioning glances he pulls his hand away, “Mr. Karasuma has us under some pretty tight watch, one I knew would catch you guys and end it for our team for sure. So, I devised an escape plan with the other kidnappees, we were never told we couldn’t work together.” He holds up a finger, “Once we were out our good old teacher chased me right away instead of the other three. I had figured it was because I made up the escape plan but who knows, I managed to give him the slip around the cliff area.” Folding his arms over his chest he continues, “He had refused to follow me down the cliff but found me again sometime after I reached the bottom, that’s when I stopped placing the trackers,” Nagisa nods in understanding, that’s why they had stopped, “He was chasing me for a while when suddenly he stopped and watched me keep going. I was confused but I wasn’t about to look a gift horse in the mouth.”

Isogai steps forward, “He must have realized you ran past the border and let you do it. Thinking it would keep us from finding you.”

The redhead nods, “I had the same thought after you told me about it. It would make sense. So why did you come after me?”

Kayano launches her hand up, “Oh! We left our phones within the boundary and came after you! He doesn’t know we left!”

The grin that crosses Karma’s face caused a shiver to pass down their back of unease, “You sly little dogs. You broke the rules just to win! I must be rubbing off more than I thought.”

As the group erupts in a small argument of protests, Nagisa keeps his senses on their surroundings, he could see Karma doing it too. Just because they were out of the play zone didn’t mean they were safe, “We should head back. The faster the better.”

They all nod and wait for Karma to take the lead this time, “You up for a run?” He teases as he sprints back the way they had come.

They gripe a bit more about how they had been running for most of the game but followed nonetheless. They might have a shot at winning now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let me know if I made a mistake! It’s greatly appreciated!


	7. Caught

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In case it was unclear. I do not proof read my stuff~
> 
> Also as a side note. I do have finals this week and next SO!

They reach where their phones were stashed in record time. Maehara grabs them from the branches with ease and hands them out.

Ritsu pops up on the screen, “Ah, I see you found Karma!”

The gradient haired teen smiles and moves closer to his classmate, “Yup! Target acquired. Now we head back to base right?”

She nods her head enthusiastically, “Correct! Good luck!”

His puts his phone away, while Nakamura hands her own to Karma, “Figured you would want a map to plan our next move.”

Karma for his part holds up his hands, “Hey now. You did just fine without me in charge.”

They frown at him, he would usually take up the lead at the drop of a hat, so excuse them for being shocked.

Nagisa takes a step forward, “But you’re usually in charge?”

His hands find the pockets of his pants and he shrugs, “Mr. Karasuma told us to act like someone who’s been kidnapped. Technically this is your guys mission not mine. I’m just playing the part.”

Isogai nods, “That makes sense. Alright, since you’re still the victim why don’t you tell us what you know about Mr. Karasuma? Did he explain any of his plans to you?”

A nod, “A little, honestly he didn’t really say anything. It took a while to get out though.”

Nakamura makes a thoughtful face, “Where was he keeping you?”

“You were near the cliff right?” They confirm that, yes they had, “We were in a cave not too far from that location. I didn’t even know it was a cave until he took us inside.”

Kayano shakes her head, “Pretty sneaky. But you got out. Did the others escape too?”

Karma nods his head, “Last I checked yeah.”

“Ok, well. There’s no reason our teacher would stay there if it were compromised but climbing that cliff took a lot out of Nagisa and I don’t think we could do it again without being spotted.” Isogai scratches his head as he thinks.

“Why don’t we just follow the same path we took in?”

All eyes turn toward Sugino, his face was one of contemplation. “We trace our steps. Take the same route. It was the fastest one in so it should be the fastest one out right?”

Nakamura smiles wide, “Not a bad idea baseball head!”

He grumbles at the nickname but doesn’t say much more as a phone is pulled back out.

“Ok, we came this way so, following this line back should be cake! And it avoids the cliff.” Nakamura fingers trace and point as she speaks.

They nod in agreement before getting back into their formation, Karma for his part playing the victim, stayed in the middle with Maehara and Isogai on either side of him.

Nagisa as a last minute thought pulls out his gun and hands it to Karma, “Do you know how to use this?”

At the others weird looks he almost shrinks away from the question but the grin on Karma’s face has him standing firm, “I’m not a very good shot. Think you will be ok without it?”

The looks turn understanding, this was still a scenario game they had to play, that included working with the hostage. Nagisa smiles warmly, “I’ll be fine. I’m more of a close combat person anyway.”

Karma takes the gun and holds it with practiced ease, though he tries to act like he has no idea what he’s doing.

Turning back Nagisa darts along their path to lead them back to the starting point. Hoping they won’t run into anyone along the way.

That hope is quickly dashed when, not even five minutes later, Nagisa goes crashing into Itona at a full sprint. They land in a heap, groaning in pain as they get their bearings. Sitting up and running a sore spot on his shoulder before looking up.

“Ugh, sorry Itona.”

The other boy sits up with a look of mild pain but shrugs, “It’s fine.”

Nagisa stands up and brushes off his pants before holding out a hand to the white haired male, “Here, I should have been watching where I was going.”

Itona reaches for his hand and his instincts kick in only a moment too late as he is suddenly flipped over the other boy onto his back. He hits hard, the air momentarily knocked out of him as the other student points a gun at his head.

“You forgot we were playing a game.”

A loud bang echoes around them and Nagisa closes his eyes as he waits for the pain to kick in, but when nothing happens he opens them slowly. Above him Itona is rubbing his cheek and looking to the side.

“Jeez, the idea was not to get caught.”

Looking over, Nagisa notices his group all poised to shoot but the smug look on Karma’s face tells him exactly who saved him. Huffing, he jumps up from his position.

“Yeah, yeah. My bad. Thank you.”

Karma nods when Ritsu chimes in, “Did You take out Itona?”

Fear spikes in Nagisa but he doesn’t get a chance to warn them before Sugino holds up his phone with a smile, “Heck yeah we did.”

Ritsu’s deceptively cheery voice responds with, “Great! Since I already explained everything to Nagisa, I’m just going to sound the alarm.”

Sugino looks confused at his screen, “Alarm? What ala-“

He’s cut off by the screen flashing white with those flashing red letters, nearly dropping his phone.

‘ALERT: KIDNAPPER HAS BEEN NOTIFIED OF YOUR LOCATION!’

Ritsu starts speaking that same warning he had gotten before, “Warning: the kidnapper has been notified of your location and is enroute. Warning: the kidnapper has been notified of your location and is enroute.” 

His group startles, looking around wildly before Nakamura focuses on Nagisa, “What?! What is happening?!”

Said teen shakes his head and gestures for them to follow him, “No time to explain! We have to get out of here!”

He starts running, he has no idea where their teacher will come from but if they stay in one spot then they were bound to be found. He can hear his team behind him, following closely instead of at a distance. Their luck just seemed to be against them as they run head on into Terasaka’s whole team.

Kyano groans loudly, “Oh great! I say Nagisa isn’t aloud to be the guide anymore!”  
*  
He silently agrees as he takes out Okajima. It isn’t hard since they had been running at full tilt towards them while they were resting. Once finished he turns to see his team in similar states.

“Alright. I vote Class President be in front this time.” Sugino raises his hand with a sheepish look.

Nagisa shrugs, not minding one bit and with that taken care of, their off again. None of them questioning it even as the so called ‘alarm’ goes off again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always let me know if I made a mistake! Most of the time it’s someones name 😂


	8. Winners

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> PLEASE GO BACK AND READ THE LAST FEW SENTENCES OF THE LAST CHAPTER START FROM THE * AND KEEP GOING! I CHANGES THE ENDING!!!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please read the summary for this chapter!

Their team makes it to the edge of the forest, ready to burst through and call themselves the winners, but are barely stopped by their current guide who makes them all duck behind the bushes instead.

Maehara gestures in front of him before whispering, “Hey, what gives?”

Isogai puts a finger over his mouth in a shushing motion, “Mr. Karasuma is in the way.”

Quietly they all peak out to see that their teacher was indeed standing at full attention just before the safe zone.

Nakamura waves a hand and scoffs, “We just sneak around him. Easy.”

Karma’s already shaking his head, “Look over there.”

The group looks in the direction he is pointing to see Koro-Sensei looking around, “He’s playing too and we weren’t told.”

Their mood drops, Kayano slumps so hard she lays on the ground, “Great. Now what?”

With a thoughtful hum they contemplate what to do. Their off to the side enough that Mr. Karasuma wouldn’t see them if they were careful, but Koro-Sensei would know the instant they were on the field.

Nakamura pulls out her phone and starts fiddling with it. The group watches her with slight interest as she flicks her fingers.

“This should work.”

Kayano gives her a questioning glance, “What will do?”

Nakamura smiles wickedly, “You’ll see. We’ll only have a few seconds though so get ready to make a break for it.”

They all nod and go back to watching their teachers.

A moment passes before Koro-Sensei seems to freeze, then promptly pulls out his phone. They can’t hear him since he’s on the other side of the clearing, but Mr. Karasuma does. They watch as their teacher starts yelling at the octopus for one thing or another and they take this as their que to run.

Putting the last of their strength into running they make a break for the safety line. It’s a good distance from where they are now but if their teachers stay distracted it shouldn’t be a problem.

Nagisa sees the moment their teacher notices them, and he can’t help the grin on his face because it’s too late. With a few more steps they tumble past the safety point.

Sugino is immediately jumping around giving off loud whoops, Maehara giving a high five when a hand is offered. Kayano cheers loudly before collapsing on the ground next to Nakamura who looks ready to take a nap. Isogai is breathing heavily while leaning on his knees and Karma just stands there slightly out of breath from the run.

Nagisa can’t help but feel jealous of the red head. He didn’t have to run as much as they did.

Mr. Karasuma walks over to them, giving them a small smile, “You did good. You were the first ones to finish without getting caught and you used your enemy’s weakness against them. Get some water and rest.”

They nod slightly. Instead of moving though, they just lay down where they are, trying to catch their breath.

A shadow crosses over the bluenette’s eyes and he cracks them open to see a water bottle over his head.

“Here. You look like your dying.”

Nagisa smiles up at Karma gratefully and takes the bottle. He can hear them all talking around him but he just tunes them out in favor of taking a nap instead. He was just too tired after all of that to stay awake. Rolling into his side, he falls into a semi-sleep while his team talks around him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Imma be honest with you for a second. I hated how the last chapter ended and this one is just grinding my gears. I have been trying for weeks to hash out a new chapter and I just can’t seem to get it right.
> 
> This could have been better, or longer. I don’t know, but this game wasn’t supposed to last this long and it did so now I’m mad at it and just want it to end. It was supposed to just be a supporting chapter to help get the reader in the right set of mind but I just-???????? Hate this??????? And I can’t figure out how to fix it??????? But I think it’s the best one yet so, here!
> 
> I hope it doesn’t make you as mad as it did me.
> 
> And as always, let me know if I made a mistake.


	9. More of an authors note really

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hey! Sorry to disappoint but this is an authors note.

Quick PSA to all of my readers. I updated the tags recently in preparation for the next chapter and the ones to follow. They will continue to be updated as I write and I REALLY need you to read them! More for your own safety than mine! I just want to make sure everyone sees this as a kind of last warning before things get... worse... or go into trigger areas.

Again, sorry to disappoint but this was super important and I need to make sure it’s been said. But it says “Graphic Depictions Of Violence” for a reason!


	10. 29 Hours and 36 Minutes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> PLEASE READ THE WARNINGS FOR THIS CHAPTER

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’ve been super nervous about posting this.
> 
> Once you reach the bolded words, please skip down to the next bolded section if you don’t want to read the graphic part. It might not be bad for some of you but I was squirming when I was writing it.
> 
> The section isn’t that long but it’s not pleasant either way.

An assassination attempt failed before class even started and roll call was quickly followed by another one before they settled down to start. They were supposed to be going over everything that had happened during the game yesterday, but Mr. Karasuma had barely started to talk when their Principal walked in with an envelope.

With a grim face their teacher takes it and pulls out the contents. From this angle Nagisa can’t tell what it is but he thinks their teacher is reviewing it before showing them.

He slips the photos into the envelope, thanks the principal who quickly leaves and tucks it under his arm.

“I know I said we were going to go over what happened yesterday but I think this should happen first. These are pictures that were printed out in the same style as a photo booth, so a type of Polaroid. These pictures are worse than the ones we saw yesterday and I would advise against any of you looking at them. But since this is your mission and not mine I am going to put it to a vote.”

The class nods, a few of his classmates are already shifting uncomfortably.

“I can either one, have Ritsu enlarge the images so you can all see. Two, let them be passed around and you can decide if you want to see them. Or three, describe the images vaguely so you get an idea of what they contain.”

Everyone takes a moment to think about it, none of them talk. This was a personal decision after all.

“I assume you all have a vote by now. Please hold up a finger for your choice in front of your chest.”

Nagisa hesitates before lifting his fingers, he had to know.

Their teachers eyes scan the room, pausing once or twice before moving on. Finally he takes the folder and sets it in front of him.

“Considering what I saw, I’m going to do option three. Then if you feel uncomfortable with it, I’m going to pass around the folder and I will trust you to hold to your vote.”

They all nod in agreement, a few sighs of relief from behind him and the back of the room don’t go unnoticed.

“These pictures contain closeups of the victims wounds being inflicted as well as the aftermath. I won’t lie to you. There’s a lot of blood.”

Someone dry heaves but Nagisa doesn’t bother to look at who it is. He couldn’t make up his mind. Does he want to see it or not? Would he be able to handle something like that?

He misses what happens next but suddenly Karma is talking, “Teach. Let me look at them first. Unlike the rest of these light weights I have felt with a little blood before but unlike you, I’m not completely jaded to it. If anyone can help them decide if they want to see it, it should be me.

Their teacher sits and contemplates this for a long few minutes. It’s enough time for Koro-Sensei to wander into the room closely followed by Professor Bitch.

Finally the man nods, “If you’re sure.”

Karma scoffs as he gets up and walks to the front, “I was going to look at them anyway. So mine as well get it over with.”

The class goes quiet as Karma takes the envelope, he flips it open and pulls out the first set of photos. They hold their breath. Karma wasn’t wrong, none of them had dealt with serious blood before let alone watching people get injured. This was new territory for all of them.

Karma cards through the next two, studying each picture before putting them all away. Finally he lists his head and drops the envelope on the podium, “Imma be honest with you. Most of you shouldn’t look at these.”

Some of them flinch at his declaration, if Karma was affected it can’t be pretty. 

He turns around and looks at them, all humor is gone from his face, “The only people I think who could handle these are Nagisa, Hazama, Fuwa, Ritsu, and Hayami. I honestly think the rest of you would lost it.”

Nagisa stares, surprised he had been included in the little list. Hesitantly he looks behind him at his fellow students, most of them seemed to accept what Karma had just said.

Mr. Karasuma nods his head a little before holding the file out for Professor Bitch,“If the students just named want to see these, follow Irina out into the hall. The rest of us will begin the review of yesterday.”

Hazama stands without a question. The others close to follow. Swallowing hard Nagisa makes his way out of the room, Karma right behind him.

He turns his head to look at his classmate, “You already saw them. Why did you come out?”

Karma stays quiet for a moment before running a hand through his hair, “Needed a second.”

Nagisa swallows his gut at the words, of he had been that affected could he really handle this?

Professor Bitch lifts the envelope, “Last chance to bail out. No one will blame you, heck I haven’t even seen these yet.”

None of them move.

“Alright.” She pulls them out with her perfect nails and glances at them before side eyeing them all. At their continued persistence she heaves a heavy sigh and hands the photos out to them.

Nagisa takes one from her and looks at it. At first he can’t tell what’s happening in the photo, the angle is weird and on top of that it doesn’t-Karma flips it over in his hands. His building blushes quickly washed away, along with all the color in his face.

**THIS IS WHERE THE WARNING COMES IN, PLEASE SKIP DOWN TO THE NEXT BOLDED SECTION IF YOU DON’T WANT TO KNOW. THIS IS YOUR FINAL WARNING.**

Their close ups of Asano’s face, specifically where he had been hit in the head with a baseball bat. His eyes are still covered but someone’s gloved fingers are pulling the hair back from the wound, the pull of the hair being obvious as the skin strains against it. Progressively the photos show parts of it tearing, reopening the healing wound. The slight discoloration shows that it must be infected. The last photo is of the scabbing having torn completely away to make way for fresh blood to dye the strawberry locks, a finger pressing into the wound to make it worse.

Nagisa closes his eyes to try and calm himself. It was honestly disgusting and from the silence of the others he assumes their pictures are the same.

Wordlessly he holds out his strip for someone else to take and he takes the one from Hayami.

Taking a deep breath he looks down. These ones aren’t any better than the last. This must be where the needle is in his arm. The area around the needle is a dark red, parts of it bruising to anywhere from blue to black. As the pictures progress he sees the needle being pulled out and stuck back in in random places bringing his attention to the many puncture wounds surrounding it. He cringes at the last picture showing the needle poking through the skin twice, once on entry, one on the exit. Again, discoloration suggests infection.

**END, YOU MAY NOW CONTINUE.**

He hands his strip off before taking the last one, but instead of looking at it he lets his arm drop. Rubbing his eyes with his other hand. He wasn’t sure he could look at the last ones. Two was enough. Knowing there was another one he just…

A hand rests on his shoulder and he looks up to see Professor Bitch taking it from him carefully. Gratefully, he lets her, this way he doesn’t have to make a decision.

She takes the other images and puts them back. Re-sealing the envelope before tucking it away. They stand in silence for a moment, trying to gather whatever was left of their composure.

Irina wordlessly reaches out and hugs Fuwa, normally the girl hates being touched but as she burrows her face into their teachers shoulder he doesn’t blame her. Hayami silently joins them in their hug.

Hazama takes a steadying breath before pulling a mini book and pen from her skirt pockets and begins writing. She must cope by writing then.

Nagisa feels a hand touch his upper arm instead of his shoulder and he feels marginally better. If he was honest, shoulder touching could be a trigger for him but the only person who knew that was Karma.

He relaxes his stance, going through some of the mental exercises he practiced to get through his moms torture sessions. Though, after looking at those he isn’t sure he could keep calling them that. The hand stays firm and unmoving while he lets his mind numb for a second before coming back. If he stayed in that place for too long he would get stuck there.

He repeats this process a few times before he finally feels the tension leave him. He wasn’t sure if it was a good way to deal with things but it worked for him and that was enough.

Turning slightly, he smiles at Karma before looking at the girls. Seeing them looking better he looks back to the classroom door. Karma moves without saying anything, he opens the door for them so they can enter in silence, each still thinking about what they saw. The class doesn’t ask any questions about the pictures.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You made it!
> 
> Let me know if I made a mistake! This chapter is short because of the tags.


	11. Discussion

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is actually sort of long? Content wise, I think.

“Alright. Review of what went on yesterday.”

The class sits with their phones out and maps pulled up with four different colored lines marking up the screen.

“Each team has been color coated. Blue team was Karma’s team.”

‘Blue-Karma’ is written on the board.

“Orange team was Hayami’s team.”

‘Orange-Hayami’ comes next.

“Green, Terasaka.”

‘Green-Terasaka’ is followed closely by ‘Pink-Fuwa’

“And pink team was Fuwa.”

Their teacher motions to the map that Ritsu pulled up, “Most of your teams came into contact with each other at least once, but the blue team was the only one to get out of it unscathed, why do you think that is?”

Takebayashi raises his hand to speak, “It’s because they left the main field of battle as soon as possible.”

Mr. Karasuma shakes his head, “That’s only partially correct.”

Nakamura grins smugly as she raises her own hand, “Because of the flash bombs, right?”

At this their teacher nods, “Correct, right out of the gate they tipped the balance of the battle by attacking in a nondescript way. Giving them an advantage over the whole game.”

Okuda raises her hand slowly, “Also, during the chase, Nagisa took me out of the game really quickly and didn’t hesitate to kill me.”

Nagisa blushes as a few students look at him.

“Which was the first and only kill of the game. Otherwise, the rest of you used the see and catch methods.”

Okajima jumps up from his spot, “We could kill?! But you never said we could do that!”

Their teacher levels the teen with a stare until he sits down then, sighing heavily, “If I remember correctly, I said you could use any and all methods to win.”

A collective nod goes through the class.

“Then killing was definitely an option.”

Kanzaki points to the screen, “Um, sir? What do the dots mean?”

Their teacher folds his arms, “Those dots are markers for every time the group stopped moving. The larger the dot the longer they were stopped.”

She nods before pointing to the blue dot on the edge of the map, “Can I ask why they were stopped here for so long then?”

Nagisa offers to give the explanation for this one, “Actually, that’s because we left our phones in a tree.” At the confused looks he elaborates, “Karma left us a trail to follow that lead out of the playing bounds, so we figured we would leave them in the tree so no one would know we broke the rules to find Karma.”

A few people start to argue about cheating but are quickly shot down by Karma’s next words, “Hey now. Think about it. As a kidnapped person, we didn’t have our phones. We had no idea what the boundary was for the game. When the four of us escaped we split up and ran as fast and as far as we dared in order not to get caught again.”

Mr. Karasuma moves closer to the map, “It’s true they went out of bounds, but they never show up on the map. The only way we know if and where the group found their targets was if Ritsu was told about it. So this large dot would suggest that the blue team hadn’t moved for a significant amount of time, which they used to their advantage.”

Terasaka groans loudly, “So based on the map they won without breaking any rules whatsoever.”

“Correct.”

The class looks up to see Koro-sensei standing at the front of the class with a smile on his face, “In reality, the job of an assassin is to not get caught while still getting their target. Other than that, there is no such thing as foul play.”

They sit silently as their teacher lifts a tentacle, “I hope you all learned something from your game yesterday, because as much as I love letting you all learn at your own pace, there is still a tight time limit on our dear friend Asano’s rescue. With everything in mind, you need to come up with a plan of attack.”

The class gives a collective nod. Taking some time to think.

Hara turns to Ritsu, “Hey, can you show us the radius that our target could be in?”

The map moves from their game to the city at the bottom on the mountain, a large white circle a casing the whole of it.

Ritsu’s voice comes out of the speaker, “This is the area we had established before, but after 24 hours they could be anywhere in the world. The only reason I’m taking other countries out of the equation is because my statistics on kidnapping make it unlikely.”

Sugaya leans back in his chair, “Then why not circle Japan?”

The pink haired girl appears on the side of the screen, “That would be because of statistics as well. If this person is trying to get revenge on the principal then he would need to be closer to deliver things himself without leaving a trace in the mail, and since there are no records of these packages being sent.”

“They were planted.” Sugaya slumps in his seat, “Well that saves us from searching all of Japan.”

Mimura leans forward, “With all of this couldn’t Koro-Sensei just search every building in Japan and find our target with ease? Just searching every place would be faster and safer for Asano right?”

Koro-Sensei gives them a slightly duller smile, “While that is true, it would also require a lot of law breaking. Not only that but it would alert the public to my existence and while I don’t mind that much, your government wouldn’t be so happy if its well kept secret started dashing about Japan in such a destructive manner. You have all seen the destructive power I hold, now imagine that ripping through the entirety of Japan in search of one person.”

A few of them wince at the mental image.

“Besides. This is your mission, not mine.”

Nagisa stares at his desk while trying to think. It was their mission, really their second official mission as would be assassins. They just had to get their classmate back.

Looking back at the map he points at it, “Hey, Ritsu, would you mind marking everywhere a camera can see? Inside and outside buildings?”

She nods, “It might take a minute but I can do that!”

She then disappears from screen as red highlights start to appear on the map. Strange shapes closely resembling triangles popping up in rapid succession, some even heavily overlapping each other.

Once she’s done she reappears back on screen, “These are all the cameras that are continually functional day and night. The point of origin for a camera is a dot. I didn’t include cameras that aren’t always on, such as computer and phone cameras.”

Nagisa tried to track something with his eyes, “Could you track all of the likely routes the kidnapper could have taken through and out of the forest?”

She nods and once again disappears. This time a yellow line starts to branch and streak through the forest all merging at one point before spreading out again.

She doesn’t pop up this time, “Avoiding all cameras, these are a few of the possible routes they could have taken. I didn’t include the possibility of him walking past a panning camera.”

Kataoka places a hand on her mouth, “Quite a few of them lead to the scratchier part of town or to abandoned shops.”

Kayano pipes up, “And a few karaoke bars!”

Terasaka grunts, And backs of stores and gas stations. There really aren’t enough cameras are there?”

Muramatsu turns in his seat with a frown, “You want there to be more cameras?”

Kataoka interrupts them, “I would probably bet on the outskirts of town near the shadier parts. If they wanted to get away no one would question them there.”

Karma shakes his head, “I would actually check closer than that.”

She turns to him, “What why?”

He shrugs, “He has to deliver the messages somehow. The farther away he is the more likely he is to be caught.”

Kayano stands from her seat and walks to the map, “So you would check the Martial Inm, Shades Gas, and the surrounding areas first?”

Karma nods, “Sounds about right. But they have to have somewhere dark with no windows so I wouldn’t go to the gas stations.”

Kataoka nods her own head, “You have a point but what if they have a messenger? Someone who will deliver stuff for them. It would be safer, at that point, to be farther away.”

Yada stretches her arms out, “Maybe we should check both? We all split up into groups again and go to different areas.”

Yoshida frowns, “How would we keep track of each other?”

At the question, Mr. Karasuma moves to the front of the room, “We have a large amount of bluetooth headphones with mics on them that you can use. You would need to have a signal on your phone to be able to talk but it would keep you in contact with Ritsu as well as us.”

Kayano jumps in her spot, “Oh, this is so cool! It’s like we’re spies!”

Their teacher cracks a rare smile, “Almost. Now with your plan in mind I want you all to continue with today’s lessons. Once we get the fourth message from our target, we will discuss your plan of action.”

The class agrees with no argument. They only had a few hours before the next one was going to show up and Nagisa was secretly hoping it won’t be as bad as the last one.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let me know if I made a mistake! Sorry it took so long.


	12. Quick PSA/Authors note

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I’m looking for a Beta reader!

If you would like to Beta read any of my stories please let me know! I will use discord to communicate with you! I will be deleting this message when I post the next chapter.

https://discord.gg/bzYZqY8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it’s not a chapter!


	13. Answers

Noon comes much too quickly. The message arrives to them the same way the rest had, with the principals presence outside the classroom.

Nagisa can just make their figures outside the room, exchanging quiet words and what looks like paper before the principal is off once more. A moment later Mr. Karasuma enters the room.

“I’m sorry to interrupt your lesson Miss Irina.”

The blonde shakes her head, “We were expecting it. Now come on let’s see what it is.”

He hands over a blank package a deep frown on his face.

She opens it to look inside, and her brows pinch together in confusion, “What is this?”

Wordlessly, he turns the package around in her hand. This time when she looks, understanding crosses her face and then confusion.

“I don’t get it? What can you do with this?”

The man shrugs, “That’s up to the imagination, isn't it?”

Her hand reaches inside and pulls out the object to show it to the class, “Sorry if this is actually worse than I think it is but I’m not sure if it’s that bad?”

It looks… weird, it’s sort of gun shaped but it’s too thin and obviously made of cheap plastic. He thinks there might be a needle on it? The blood seeming to cover it however, is easy to see.

Yata seems to startle in her seat, “Oh! I know what that is! It’s an ear piercer!”

Okajima leans back in his chair, “A what?”

The brunette turns around, “It’s a cheap ear piercing gun, they use them in those overly expensive mall stores.”

Nakamura leans on her arm, “Aren't they super unsanitary?”

Yata shrugs, “I’ve never heard that.”

Nakamura points to the device, “I think I read somewhere online that those things are actually really bad to use. I can’t remember why though.”

Ritsu chimes in, “That’s actually true,” the class turns so they can see the pink haired girl showing pictures of different version of the device, “They can’t be sanitized and should be disposed of after one use. However, most stores will use them multiple times on many people and since they can’t be cleaned properly, a lot of children and teenagers have had to go into a doctor to get infections cared for. Some were even reported to have a blood transmitted disease.”

A few people shiver, it’s not exactly a pretty image to be given.

“That aside,” The object it put back inside the package before being handed off to their male teacher, “If you remember this morning, then you have a more solid plan in mind?”

The class gives their varying agreements while their president stands up, “I’ve been thinking of patrol teams and I think the best way to do this would be to grab your partners from our trip to Kyoto, since we’ve worked in the teams before. If you want a different group that’s fine too.” He folds his arms, “Next, each group will pick where they want to go. Different skills will be needed in each area, so think about that when you decide where you want to go.”

Karma raises a hand, “I think we should ask the teachers if they wouldn’t mind scoping out a few of the bars. Since we can’t get in.”

Bitch-Sensei smiles, “A little bar hopping on a school night huh? You kids must be awful to us if that’s what we’re doing.”

Mr. Karasuma frowns, “We can do that but if we do it would mean we can’t readily be prepared to help you if something goes wrong.”

Isogai paces a hand on his chin, “Then how about we scope out areas near the bars? We can make sure no one is more than two or three buildings away from each other. Then if a teacher can’t help, another group can.”

Kayano throws up her hands, “That’s perfect! Then the only thing bad that can happen is if one of us finds the kidnapper and gets kidnapped too!” she pauses for a second before deflating, “Wait, that actually sounds really bad. How will we know if someone goes missing?”

Kataoka turns in her seat to face the green haired girl, “We can keep a regular check in schedule. Every ten minutes we have to check in using our phones. This way we will know if something happens.”

Nakamura turns with a smirk on her face, “Besides, with Ritsu on our side, the moment something happens? We’ll all know about it.”

Mr. Karasuma gets their attention with a clap of his hands, “Great. Now that you have the basics out of the way. Pick your paths and get with your groups to make a plan of action. The rest of the day will be dedicated to your mission unless you finish early. If you can’t finish during school hours, I would highly suggest you work with your teams outside of school to finish up. This plan needs to be ironed out by tomorrow.”

The classroom erupts into agreements and enthusiastic movements. For a bunch of kids who were supposed to be drop-outs and losers, you definetly wouldn’t understand how they could have found such gusto over a kidnapping.

Or maybe you would.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm looking for Beta readers! If you are interested, let me know on this discord!
> 
> https://discord.gg/bzYZqY8


	14. So close

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for any errors. Let me know if I have any, ya?

Nagisa waits outside the gas station he and Sugino were sent to, looking around at the people that passed by. They had no way of knowing what the guy looked like but that didn’t stop them from trying.

Earlier that day, the class had gathered just outside of their school building to act out their plan. Since it was the weekend, it wouldn’t be strange to see a bunch of teens out and about. They had to wait a whole day because this was part of their plan and in that time they had gotten 3 more messages.

None of them were pretty.

The fifth message was an incredibly detailed list of everything the kidnapper has done. This message came on a small flash drive that Ritsu was quick to download. She was very vague in her descriptions where the files were not. She mentioned that there was even more damage done to Asano than before but the next message confused them.

The sixth message was a fax directly to the principal's home, it was a drawing of some kind. Childish in nature but graphic in an uncomfortable way. According to Ritsu, the wounds in the drawing were in fact listed in the flash drive but most were not on the drawing. She thinks their being sent out of order.

The seventh message was the worst one, not because of what it was, but because it meant more had been done than they thought. It was a simple Polaroid photo, taken close enough to see the damage, but far enough away they could see him as a whole.

Nagisa shudders as he thinks about what was in the image. They couldn’t tell if they saw all the damage but it was enough to know they needed to move fast.

**SKIP TO NEXT BOLDED LINE**

Asano was slumped in the chair, his head tilted to the side, if you looked closely enough, you could see something wrapped around his throat. They suspected it was leather based on its color.

Dried blood had matted his hair to his face, making it hard to see if more was done to his head. The once white T-shirt he wore was covered in both red and brown, the dark spots making it so their teacher could guess when most of the wounds were made. His arms were still behind his back and his legs tied to the front legs of the chair, showing off a large hole burned into the upper right thigh. They couldn’t see what was burned into the skin underneath but it was mostly unrecognizable.

They had also found out what the ear piercing gun was for, if the tag that was dangling from Asano’s ear made a big enough statement, it made something churn in Nagisa’s stomach.

To top it all off, the tube was just barely visible off to the side, a dark liquid making its way down to where it was inserted. They think the man waited for just the right moment when the liquid would be in view, giving the image the feeling of impending pain.

**OK COME BACK**

There were cuts and bruises, littering the teens body. Discoloration of most of his skin spoke volumes of the beating he must be getting and this was only from a front view.

Sugino taps him on the shoulder, “You ok there?”

The bluenette jumps a little before looking at the teen, “Oh, yeah. Sorry about that.”

He gets a shrug in return and a slushee presses into his hand, “It’s fine. You still bothered by this morning?”

Nagisa nods, “Yeah. I just can’t shake the feeling like we’re running out of time. Almost as if some imaginary timer is ticking over our heads and when it goes off…”

Sugino takes a sip of his drink while thinking before starting to walk to their next destination, “I know what you mean. But we have to keep going and push through. That’s our job isn’t it?”

The blunette shares a smile with his partner while following him, he was right. They just had to work as fast as possible and get the job done. Just like with Koro-Sensei.

Pulling out his phone, Sugino taps in his passcode to check in with Ritsu, “Nothing so far. We’re moving to the next spot.”

She nods enthusiastically, “Thanks for telling me! You checked in a little early, so no one else has sent anything in yet.”

Nagisa leans into view, “That’s alright, let us know if something comes up.”

She nods before disappearing.

Sugino slips his phone back into his pocket, “Where are we going again?”

Nagisa looks around before pointing, “There’s a hotel here we’re supposed to scope out but according to Karma we should actually scout out the park nearby.”

“Ok so, we’re not going to the Hotel?”

The blunette shakes his head, “No, it would be too suspicious if we went to the hotel. So we should look at the windows and focus on who comes in and out of the building.”

Sugino settles down on a bench, pulling out his phone to seem busy when it goes off.

Ritsu’s voice rings out, “Nagisa, Sugino? Are you there?”

Nagisa pulls out his own phone while Sugino talks, “Yeah. What’s up?”

She gives them a grave look, “Hazama and Itona found something. They think it might be the kidnapper.”

As one their off like a shot. Running through the streets to the address Ritsu gives them. It’s about a mile away from them but if they were lucky they wouldn’t be the last ones to arrive.

They round the last corner, barely avoiding being hit by a car after farting across the street. Just in front of them, Hazama crouches low behind a trash bin.

Nagisa stops just behind her, panting out, “Hazama, what’s going on?”

She turns to glance at them before turning forward, “Itona went in to scout out the area but hasn’t come back yet. A few of the others are stationed around the area looking for the guy in case he tries to leave.”

Sugino gives her a panicked look, “We all agreed to stick with our partner! What were you guys thinking?”

She frowns before looking him in the eye, “Hey, this wasn’t my idea. We saw someone sketchy and decided to hide, the next thing I know, he’s walking into the building. I didn’t want to risk getting him caught so I haven’t called his cell but he’s been in there ever since that message went out.”

Nagisa looks at his phone, “That was almost 7 minutes ago.”

A hint of worry enters her normally stoic expression, “I know.”

Nagisa looks around to check their surroundings, just like the dark teen had said a few of his classmates stick out from their hiding spots. It didn’t look like everyone was here. “Have you seen our teachers yet?”

Hazama shakes her head, “Not yet.” Her eyes flick back to the building their in front of, “It's been too long.”

Her sudden worry for their classmate sets off a few warning bells that Nagisa can’t ignore, “Give him a minute and if no one sees him, I’ll go in.”

Sugino grabs his arm, “What? No. Nagisa you can’t do that, we agreed not to split up.”

The bluenette brushes him off, “Think of it like this. I’m leaving you with Hazama and I’m joining Itona. It’s just a small change in groups. I’ll keep my phone on and make sure Ritsu’s camera can see the room when I go in. Most people won’t even notice me.”

The teen looks like he wants to argue but something on his face must stop any protests, “Huh, Fine. But you’re taking the heat for this with our teachers.”

Nodding his head, the three train their eyes back on the building once more. It was mostly nondescript, it looked just like all the other buildings surrounding the place. If anything it looked like the best place to hide a kidnapped teen because no one would look here.

A minute passes and without another word, Nagisa is slipping out into the open and approaching the building. A few of his other classmates spot him, if their frantic looks and small gestures are anything to go by but he ignores them.

Pulling out his phone, he pretends to check the address of the building before entering it. It might not mean much but he hoped it helped if anyone saw him.

The door is quiet when he slips in, but the dark interior makes him more suspicious. It almost reminded him of a small business building if it weren’t for the completely empty reception room. Taking a few steps, he tries to listen for any strange sounds, his phone camera on to look at the room.

A sharp laugh cuts through his calm facade. Panicked Nagisa looks around him before diving behind on of the fake plants in the corner, it was by far the worst hiding place on the planet but since he’s so small it wasn’t awful.

Loud voices start to make themselves known, “Damn, Rick, startled by a little kid.”

The laughter is soon joined by more male voices, all jeering at one person.

“Yeah dude. It’s just a kid.”

“A small one too!”

“Ah, shut up! I thought it was a cop or something!”

Immediately Nagisa knows it’s not the person they’ve been looking for. There were too many of them, and they didn’t seem smart enough to be able to kidnap someone, let alone a middle schooler with martial art skills out of a second story window.

“He’s so small, wonder what school he’s from.”

“Doesn’t matter, gatta dispose of him. Can’t have witnesses.”

“Just toss ‘im over the bridge and let him drown.”

“What if he can swim?”

“Rick you dumb ass. That’s what the rope is for, or were you planning on untying him?”

“Fuck off. Whatever, pull the car around.”

The voices are loud as ever now, the USF have come down from an upper level.

“Think he was alone?”

“Dunno, he was doing a lot of sneaking around for a teen in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

“Doesn’t matter, I'll go get the car.”

Working fast, Nagisa types out a message on his phone before sending it. They could totally take these guys out and not be seen as suspicious to the kidnapper they were actually looking for.

Not a moment later, the door is kicked open and chaos ensues. Still hidden behind the plant, Nagisa peaks around to see Mr. Karasuma whipping the floor with a group of men. He watches as Itona is dropped to the floor by one of them, luckily getting his bearings and landing on his feet instead of his back.

The last guy finally falls to the floor with a groan and Nagisa darts out to help Itona, “Are you ok?”

The teen nods, rubbing his wrists before taking the cloth out of his mouth, “I’m fine. They got the drop on me but these aren’t our guys.”

Mr. Karasuma nods, “They look like your average drug dealers if the smell is anything to go by.”

Nagisa let’s his shoulders sag, “So we keep looking then?”

Their teacher shakes his head, “Actually, Hayami and Chiba found something on their way here. They decided to scope it out and they think it might be the right place.”

Itona sticks his hands in his pockets with a sheepish look, “Sorry.”

Mr. Karasuma places a hand on his shoulder, “I’m not the one you need to apologize to. Let’s regroup and you can speak to your classmate while we talk.”

The teen nods before walking out of the building.

“I’ve already had Ritsu leave an anonymous tip for the cops. Let’s see if this next place is the right one.”

Nagisa smile before leaving the building, the cold sense of dread only increasing now that they’ve missed their mark once.


	15. Across the street

It takes hours and many empty leads before they find something that gives them even a little hope. At first, every one had voiced their suspicions and doubts that it could have been a lead, but what can you say to a determined female middle schooler who admired their assassination teacher?

Yada had mentioned seeing someone she thought would be a good candidate for the kidnapper with nothing more than ‘he walks funny’ before following him with Kurahashi at her heels. They responded to every single ten minute call with the same thing after that, ‘still pursuing target’ and ignoring all of their advice to drop it.

Turns out she wasn’t wrong.

An hour later, well into the afternoon the man had met with someone to get a package. They hadn’t exchanged any words so it was already suspicious. What really sealed the deal was the fact that the address for the Asano’s home was stamped in the corner of the package.

The girls had quickly abandoned the messenger in favor of the person of interest. Meeting up with students and trading off as they went. This lead them to their current problem and realization however.

“This is my house.”

Nagisa turns to his companion in confusion, “What?”

Sugino points to a slightly run down home they had paused in front of, “This is my house, as in I live here.”

Realization dawns on the bluenette when he sees the man they had been following walk into an almost identical house a little ways across the street.

The sudden feeling of being watched has Sugino laughing nervously and putting a hand behind his head, “Why don’t you come in? I’m sure my family won’t mind.”

They walk into the home as calmly as possible, shutting and locking the door once their out of the open.

Nagisa sighs in relief before pulling out his phone and putting it up to his ear so he can talk to Ritsu, trying to ignore the family conversation behind him.

“Ritsu?”

“Hello Nagisa! I can’t see you, is something wrong?”

“No, we’re just uh…” he turns to look at the family before looking at the door, “We’re at Sugino’s house.”

There’s a soft hum, “Why are you there? That seems a little off track don’t you think?”

He laughs nervously, “Not really. There was a… problem.”

“What kind of problem?”

One of Sugino’s younger siblings tugs in his pant leg, “Across the street from Sugino’s house.” He waves at the girl, “A few doors to the West.”

“I see, so you found his home then and you’re in a compromising situation?”

He sighs when the girl runs off, “Yup.”

“I’ll relay the message. Should I tell them anything else?”

Nagisa looks to his classmate, “Anything I should tell her?”

Sugino shrugs and ushers his siblings into the kitchen, “I don’t know them but I think I’ve seen him around a few times? Nothing weird.”

Nagisa nods, “Not yet Ritsu. I’ll talk to you in a bit.”

“Ok! I’ll ping you if something happens!”

The bluenette shoves his phone away. Quick to follow the taller student when he leads them to his room, “I share my room with my older brother but he’s at work right now.” The door closes with a soft click.

Nagisa sits in a desk chair as his friend flops onto the baseball covered sheets, “Oh my gosh, a kidnapper lives down the street from my family and I had no idea.”

The bluenette winces, “If you knew then he wouldn’t be a very good kidnapper would he?”

The other frowns, “Does it matter?” His arms cover his face, “This is dangerous. This just got really real.” He sits up abruptly, “No, this is huge! This isn’t a joke or a game! Someone from our school got kidnapped and could die! We can’t be playing around with this anymore, we need to tell the cops!”

Nagisa raises his hands in a placating gesture, “Whoa, Sugino, calm down. You’re freaking out.”

Said teen takes a breath, “Ok. Ok. Yeah, calm down. We know where they are. That’s good right?”

“Yes, yes, that’s a very good thing. Everyone is moving in as we speak. Once we have it confirmed, we’ll come up with a plan. Worst case scenario, we have to ask Koro-Sensei to jump in. No one is going to die.”

The teen let’s his head fall into his hands, obviously trying to calm his nerves.

Leaving him to it, Nagisa takes out his phone, “Ritsu, any updates?”

Her face is in a frown when she comes up, “Their coming, but a few have been asking where they should hide, or if it’s safe to come. Since it might be suspicious if a whole class showed up in the area.”

Sugino doesn’t lift his head, “This area is filled with bushes, trees, and things to hide behind. The neighbors mostly keep to themselves so it shouldn’t be hard for them to hide.”

The girl nods, “I’ll let the others know. Who should we send to investigate?”

Nagisa frowns, “That sounds more like a teacher question.”

Ritsu smiles, “You’re right. I’ll contact you when we have a plan. Koro-Sensei is debating on going in first just in case.” The screen goes blank after her figure disappears.

Sugino sighs, “Looks like it’s a waiting game now.”

Nagisa hums in agreement as they get more comfortable and wait.


End file.
